Cross-Situational Statistical Learning of Phonologically Overlapping Words

Abstract Recent research has sought to examine how learners are able to track the co-occurrence of words and objects across moments in time, a behavior commonly termed crosssituational statistical learning. The current experiment was designed to examine if learners can simultaneously determine word-referent pairings while engaging in other cognitive processes that support language learning, such as distinguishing phonologically overlapping words. Participants were presented with a cross-situational statistical learning task with pairs of words in four categories: non-minimal pairs, near minimal pairs, vowel minimal pairs, and consonant minimal pairs. The results revealed that participants were able to simultaneously learn word-referent pairings while distinguishing all four categories of word pairings. However, learners experienced the most difficulty learning vowel minimal pairs. This work demonstrates that learners are able to simultaneously engage in multiple cognitive processes that support language learning

Cross-situational word learning in two foreign languages : effects of native language and perceptual difficulty

Cross-situational word learning (CSWL) paradigms have gained traction in recent years as a way to examine word learning in ambiguous scenarios in infancy, childhood, and adulthood. However, no study thus far has examined how CSWL paradigms may provide viable learning pathways for second language (L2) word learning. Here, we used a CSWL paradigm to examine how native Australian English (AusE) speakers learned novel Dutch (Experiment 1) and Brazilian Portuguese (Experiment 2) word-object pairings. During each learning phase trial, two words and objects were presented without indication as to which auditory word belonged to which visual referent. The two auditory words formed a non-minimal or vowel minimal pair. Minimal pairs were classified as "perceptually easy"or "perceptually difficult"based on the acoustic-phonetic relationship between AusE and each L2. At test, participants again saw two visual referents but heard one auditory label and were asked to select the corresponding referent. We predicted that accuracy would be highest for non-minimal pair trials (in which the auditory words associated with the target and distractor object formed a non-minimal pair), followed by perceptually easy minimal pairs, with lowest accuracy for perceptually difficult minimal pair trials. Our results support these hypotheses: While accuracy was above chance for all pair types, in both experiments accuracy was highest for non-minimal pair trials, followed by perceptually easy and then perceptually difficult minimal pair trials. These results are the first to demonstrate the effectiveness of CSWL in adult L2 word learning. Furthermore, the difference between perceptually easy and perceptually difficult minimal pairs in both language groups suggests that the acoustic-phonetic relationship between the L1-L2 is an important factor in novel L2 word learning in ambiguous learning scenarios. We discuss the implications of our findings for L2 acquisition, cross-situational learning and encoding of phonetic detail in a foreign language

Spectral and temporal implementation of Japanese speakers' English vowel categories : a corpus-based study

This study investigates the predictions of second language (L2) speech acquisition models — SLM(-r), PAM(-L2), and L2LP — on how native (L1) Japanese speakers implement the spectral and temporal aspects of L2 American English vowel categories. Data were obtained from 102 L1 Japanese speakers in the J-AESOP corpus, which also includes nativelikeness judgments by trained phoneticians. Spectrally, speakers judged to be non-nativelike showed a strong influence from L1 categories, except L2 /ʌ/ which could be deflected away from L1 /a/ according to SLM(-r) and L2 /ɑː/ which seemed orthographically assimilated to L1 /o/ according to PAM(-L2). More nativelike speakers showed vowel spectra similar to those of native English speakers across all vowels, in accordance with L2LP. Temporally, although speakers tended to equate the phonetic length of English vowels with Japanese phonemic length distinctions, segment-level L1-L2 category similarity was not a significant predictor of the speakers’ nativelikeness. Instead, the implementation of prosodic-level factors such as stress and phrase-final lengthening were better predictors. The results highlight the importance of suprasegmental factors in successful category learning and also reveal a weakness in current models of L2 speech acquisition, which focus primarily on the segmental level. Theoretical and pedagogical implications are discussed

Explaining L2 lexical learning in multiple scenarios : cross-situational word learning in L1 Mandarin L2 English speakers

Adults commonly struggle with perceiving and recognizing the sounds and words of a second language (L2), especially when the L2 sounds do not have a counterpart in the learner’s first language (L1). We examined how L1 Mandarin L2 English speakers learned pseudo English words within a cross‐situational word learning (CSWL) task previously presented to monolingual English and bilingual Mandarin‐English speakers. CSWL is ambiguous because participants are not provided with direct mappings of words and object referents. Rather, learners discern word‐object correspondences through tracking multiple co‐occurrences across learning trials. The monolinguals and bilinguals tested in previous studies showed lower performance for pseudo words that formed vowel minimal pairs (e.g., /dit/‐/dɪt/) than pseudo word which formed consonant minimal pairs (e.g., /bɔn/‐/pɔn/) or non‐minimal pairs which differed in all segments (e.g., /bɔn/‐/dit/). In contrast, L1 Mandarin L2 English listeners struggled to learn all word pairs. We explain this seemingly contradicting finding by considering the multiplicity of acoustic cues in the stimuli presented to all participant groups. Stimuli were produced in infant‐directed‐speech (IDS) in order to compare performance by children and adults and because previous research had shown that IDS enhances L1 and L2 acquisition. We propose that the suprasegmental pitch variation in the vowels typical of IDS stimuli might be perceived as lexical tone distinctions for tonal language speakers who cannot fully inhibit their L1 activation, resulting in high lexical competition and diminished learning during an ambiguous word learning task. Our results are in line with the Second Language Linguistic Perception (L2LP) model which proposes that fine‐grained acoustic information from multiple sources and the ability to switch between language modes affects non‐native phonetic and lexical development

Phonological and Language Improvements in Preschool Children: A Comparison of Phonological Process Targeting and Whole Language Training.

This study compared phonological and language changes that occurred in preschool phonologically-impaired children following treatment via a discrete phonological process targeting approach or a whole language approach. It was hypothesized that a treatment program utilizing a communication-based, whole language approach would result in improvements in various language domains (e.g., phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics), while treatment targeting a specific aspect of language, that is, phonology, would result in improvements limited to that specific domain. Subjects were eight preschool children, 3-4 years of age, exhibiting multiple articulation errors, and randomly assigned to one of two intervention programs for a six-week period. The phonological process approach targeted the most salient error pattern exhibited by subjects in this group (i.e., Consonant Cluster Reduction or Fronting) through practice in production and perception of affected minimal pair contrasts. The whole language approach focused on improving the child\u27s ability to formulate and express useful language in a communicative setting through production of narratives, while expanding and increasing complexity of narrative structure. Pretreatment and posttreatment measures of phonological and language performance were used to compare the efficacy of the two treatment approaches. The assessment battery included assessment of single word performance on tests administered, connected speech performance on various tasks (e.g., storytelling; relating familiar experiences) and higher level language performance, including syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic measures. Data analysis revealed that while all subjects demonstrated improved phonological performance, subjects in the whole language group demonstrated a greater degree of improvement than those in the phonological process group. In addition, the whole language group showed larger gains in syntactic, morphological, semantic, and pragmatic expression. These results suggest the need for further studies that evaluate treatment efficacy by utilizing a whole language approach as compared to a discrete phonological approach with young phonologically-impaired children

Word learning in the field : adapting a laboratory-based task for testing in remote Papua New Guinea

Adapting laboratory psycholinguistic methods to fieldwork contexts can be fraught with difficulties. However, successful implementation of such methods in the field enhances our ability to learn the true extent and limitations of human behavior. This paper reports two attempts to run word learning experiments with the small community of Nungon speakers in Towet village in the Saruwaged Mountains, Papua New Guinea. A first attempt involved running a cross-situational task in which word-object pairings were presented ambiguously in each trial, and an explicit word learning task in which pairings were presented explicitly, or unambiguously, in each trial. While this quickly garnered a respectable 34 participants over the course of a week, it yielded null results, with many participants appearing to show simple patterned responses at test. We interpreted the null result as possibly reflecting the unfamiliarity of both the task and the laptop-based presentation mode. In Experiment 2, we made several adjustments to the explicit word learning task in an attempt to provide clearer instructions, reduce cognitive load, and frame the study within a real-world context. During a second 11-day stay in the village, 34 participants completed this modified task and demonstrated clear evidence of word learning. With this success serving as a future guide for researchers, our experiences show that it may require multiple attempts, even by experienced fieldworkers familiar with the target community, to successfully adapt experiments to a field setting

Language Structure Is Partly Determined by Social Structure

BACKGROUND: Languages differ greatly both in their syntactic and morphological systems and in the social environments in which they exist. We challenge the view that language grammars are unrelated to social environments in which they are learned and used. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We conducted a statistical analysis of >2,000 languages using a combination of demographic sources and the World Atlas of Language Structures--a database of structural language properties. We found strong relationships between linguistic factors related to morphological complexity, and demographic/socio-historical factors such as the number of language users, geographic spread, and degree of language contact. The analyses suggest that languages spoken by large groups have simpler inflectional morphology than languages spoken by smaller groups as measured on a variety of factors such as case systems and complexity of conjugations. Additionally, languages spoken by large groups are much more likely to use lexical strategies in place of inflectional morphology to encode evidentiality, negation, aspect, and possession. Our findings indicate that just as biological organisms are shaped by ecological niches, language structures appear to adapt to the environment (niche) in which they are being learned and used. As adults learn a language, features that are difficult for them to acquire, are less likely to be passed on to subsequent learners. Languages used for communication in large groups that include adult learners appear to have been subjected to such selection. Conversely, the morphological complexity common to languages used in small groups increases redundancy which may facilitate language learning by infants. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We hypothesize that language structures are subjected to different evolutionary pressures in different social environments. Just as biological organisms are shaped by ecological niches, language structures appear to adapt to the environment (niche) in which they are being learned and used. The proposed Linguistic Niche Hypothesis has implications for answering the broad question of why languages differ in the way they do and makes empirical predictions regarding language acquisition capacities of children versus adults

What have we learned from 15 years of research on cross-situational word learning? A focused review

In 2007 and 2008, Yu and Smith published their seminal studies on cross-situational word learning (CSWL) in adults and infants, showing that word-object-mappings can be acquired from distributed statistics despite in-the-moment uncertainty. Since then, the CSWL paradigm has been used extensively to better understand (statistical) word learning in different language learners and under different learning conditions. The goal of this review is to provide an entry-level overview of findings and themes that have emerged in 15 years of research on CSWL across three topic areas (mechanisms of CSWL, CSWL across different learner and task characteristics) and to highlight the questions that remain to be answered

Does Sleep Improve Your Grammar? : Preferential Consolidation of Arbitrary Components of New Linguistic Knowledge

We examined the role of sleep-related memory consolidation processes in learning new form-meaning mappings. Specifically, we examined a Complementary Learning Systems account, which implies that sleep-related consolidation should be more beneficial for new hippocampally dependent arbitrary mappings (e.g. new vocabulary items) relative to new systematic mappings (e.g. grammatical regularities), which can be better encoded neocortically. The hypothesis was tested using a novel language with an artificial grammatical gender system. Stem-referent mappings implemented arbitrary aspects of the new language, and determiner/suffix+natural gender mappings implemented systematic aspects (e.g. tib scoiffesh + ballerina, tib mofeem + bride; ked jorool + cowboy, ked heefaff + priest). Importantly, the determiner-gender and the suffix-gender mappings varied in complexity and salience, thus providing a range of opportunities to detect beneficial effects of sleep for this type of mapping. Participants were trained on the new language using a word-picture matching task, and were tested after a 2-hour delay which included sleep or wakefulness. Participants in the sleep group outperformed participants in the wake group on tests assessing memory for the arbitrary aspects of the new mappings (individual vocabulary items), whereas we saw no evidence of a sleep benefit in any of the tests assessing memory for the systematic aspects of the new mappings: Participants in both groups extracted the salient determiner-natural gender mapping, but not the more complex suffix-natural gender mapping. The data support the predictions of the complementary systems account and highlight the importance of the arbitrariness/systematicity dimension in the consolidation process for declarative memories